Island Shifters: Book 03 - An Oath of the Children (25 page)

“Go! Now!”

The Elf
pulled
up the sides of his tongor and raced
away.

After taking a deep breath, he
turned back to his Seconds, Anah, Balder and Jarl. “We need to talk. The Vypir is missing.”

“What?
We have to do something!” Anah cried in a panic. Hendrix looked into her gaunt face and red-rimmed eyes
and wondered if his own appearance mirrored hers. It probably did. Since the blood, he
could not remember the last time he
had eaten. While the blood gave him sustenance and strength, his body still required food to survive. He would have to tell the Adjunct to make sure he ate on a regular basis
once the blood supply resumed.

How ironic that after all these centuries
of caring for that monstrosity, they
finally
find a land of magic and the Vypir escapes their grasp. If Emile were here, he would know how to find the Vypir he called Tolah, but
Hendrix sent him and the Battlearms to Massa.
Another cruel
quirk of fate.

Balder started to question him further, but Hendrix cut him off. “Not now! We have guests.”

Hendrix turned toward the dock and the six people walking toward him. He sniffed at the air and almost fell to the ground from the strength of magic these people possessed.
Composing himself, he walked forward with his arms outstretched.
“Welcome to the great
island of Ellvin! You cannot begin to know how thrilled we are to have you here.”

* * * * *

Kenley
smiled
as she accepted the wild flowers Kirby handed to her. The strong breeze ruffled his blonde curls causing them to
be
even
more disheveled than normal. This,
along
with his rosy cheeks from the wind-swept valley,
made him look so young and carefree.

She loved this Kirby.

He grabbed
her hand and they sprinted together over the hills and
dips in the valley floor.
At one point,
Kirby
abruptly
stopped their headlong race to swing her into the air
by her waist. She threw her head back and laughed, content to be
in the arms of the man she loved more than anything. He kissed her
forehead and desire flooded her body as he
drew her down onto the carpet of
verdant
grass.

Kenley! Why do you have that dress on! Take if off right now!

Kenley
rolled off Kirby and stood at the sharp words from her mother.

But, it is my wedding day.

No, Kenley, it is not your wedding day. Your grief is playing tricks on your mind.

It is my wedding day, mother!

No, Kenley.

She pointed behind her. Just ask
Kirby!
He will straighten this out.

Her mother
crumpled
a white cloth in her hands and looked down.
Kirby is dead.

What?

You are too late, daughter.
Kirby is dead.

Her head swiveled to the ground. Blood seeped from Kirby’s mouth and his unseeing eyes
glazed over as he lay in frozen death
on the valley floor.

She screamed.

Bolting
upright, she covered her face with trembling hands and fought to get her breathing under control.

Another dream?
Baya asked.

Yes.

Try to go back to sleep.

She sat unmoving for
a long time, unwilling to surrender herself to the dream once again. Finally,
having no other choice,
she groaned and fell back
to the ground. Pulling her cloak over her head, she
snuggled into
its warmth
and
tried to
empty her mind of all thought. In her semi-conscious state,
a noise jerked her
back into awareness.
It sounded like pebbles hitting a cobblestone road, but how could
that be
in a rainforest?
Too tired to care about the answer, she closed her eyes
once
again, but the
noise
continued to peck away
at her consciousness
until
she could no longer ignore it.

With a growl, she
lifted her head from out of the cloak. Baya sat in the middle of their prison with her eyes on the grate above.

What is that noise, Baya?

A crow.

A crow?

Yes. It is a type of black bird.

She snorted.
I know what a crow is. I hate crows.

Why do you hate
crows?

She shrugged mentally.
Everyone knows that when you see a crow, something bad is going to happen.

Do you really believe that, Princess? There are many crows in the world. If each one was a portend of evil, we would have very little good in existence.

Diamond once told me to heed all warnings from crows.

Baya turned her green eyes on Kenley.
Heed all warnings does not mean that they are all dire.

Kenley stood and peered up at the grate. Sure enough, a very large crow
was
perched in the center, pecking
away
at the iron grid.

“Unless you can open that grate, bird, get lost,” Kenley shouted up at it.

The bird squawked angrily at her words.

The crow’s appearance made her think back to the pier in Northfort when she saw one just like it and
the
old woman with white eyes.

She shuddered.

A
tortured rasp
cut through
the
quiet
of the rainforest,
and before Kenley could wonder at the sound, the grate ripped away from the hole.

Kenley gasped in surprise, but not wishing to waste the opportunity, she sprang
into the air and shot out of her prison.
Hovering
several feet
off the ground, she
looked down in shock.
Standing at the edge of the hole was the very woman she had just
been thinking
about
and perched on her shoulder—the crow.

Baya scrambled
out,
her dragon talons easily allowing her to scale the
dirt
walls.

Kenley flitted down to the ground.
“It
would seem
that my
sincere
gratitude is in order,” she said to the woman with a bow of her head.

The old woman gave her a toothless smile. “I am wondering why you wallow in Haventhal, Princess,
when
others need your help.”

Wallow?
Really?
Kenley dusted the dirt from her clothes. “What do you mean? Who needs my help?”

“An enemy has arrived on Massa’s shores.”

Her blood ran cold.
“What enemy?”

“Dark Elves.”

She quickly realized the woman must be referring to the Ellvinians. The same Ellvinians she sent Kirby and the children to Northfort to receive. “Are you sure, my lady? For what purpose
would the
Ellvinians
attack Massa?”

“They have come for the blood of shifters.”

“So, it is battle they seek?”

“Only as a means to an end. Pay attention. They have come for the blood of shifters. They wish to
drink
it.”

Kenley stared at the old woman. “But, that doesn’t make—”

“The Ellvinians are blood suckers. They crave the blood of magic users.”

“They will kill Massans for their blood?”
she asked incredulously.

“Worse. They will keep them alive.”

Kenley snorted. “Unless they
possess great
powers, they will have
a very difficult time
obtaining the blood of a shifter.”

“They do have a power of sorts. It is called Ascendency and it allows them to convince people how they should think.”

How does this woman know so much? For that matter, how did she open the grate?
Something her father spoke about a few years ago
suddenly
leapt into her mind. “Are
you
the Oracle?”

“I have been called
by
many names.”

An
enigma
to solve another time
Kenley
decided as she
thought about her brothers and the rest of the children
in danger. “I must go.”
She bowed deeply at the waist. “Thank you, Oracle. I am indebted to—” She looked up, but the woman was gone.

With a shake of her head,
Kenley swooped back down into the hole to gather her backpack. “Baya, I have to fly back to Iserlohn. It is the only way to get there in time.”

Baya nodded. “I will follow from below.”

“Baya, I must hurry. If we lose each other, I cannot wait for you.”

“You will not lose me, Princess. I will keep up.”

Kenley nodded, flexed muscles that had not been used in days and shot into the air.

C
HAPTER
19

S
HATTERED
I
NNOCENCE

“Take off your clothes, Izabel.”

Izzy’s body trembled at Chandal’s words. She had known all along
that this
was what he wanted from her. His leering looks and
furtive
touches had finally built his confidence enough to act.
Candlelight softened his angular features, but could do nothing for the
iniquity
that lurked behind his eyes.

“Please, sir, I need a moment,” she told him softly. Crouched in the corner of the room, she needed time to build her own courage for what she was about to do. She needed to buy time so that he did not use his mind control on her.

A fleeting image of her parents’ loving faces brushed her mind, but she shook it away. She had to or else the emotional tide that hovered at the edges of her reason would overwhelm her.

She swallowed to regain
some of
her nerve.
She was young, but she was also the daughter
of Airron
and Melania
Falewir
and a protector of her people. In the face of evil, it was her duty to destroy its existence utterly and without remorse.

She was staring at
that
evil.

Slowly, she stood.

Would her parents still love her after this act? Would they realize that she had no other choice? Deep down in her heart, she knew that they would. She had been taught from a very early age how to
survive,
and she would
do what
was necessary
to live through this ordeal.

Chandal stared at her
hungrily
with eyes as black as night as her hands went to the front laces of her dress. Her hands were no longer shaking as she untied them and pulled her dress over her head.

Chandal
rose fluidly from the bed and
approached without hurry, afraid she might dart away like a frightened animal if he moved too fast. “You are so beautiful, Izabel. I am utterly captivated by you.” He
reached out and
ran the back of his fingers along her cheek. “I know you are young, but I will be gentle. I promise.”

Standing before him in nothing but her shift, her
composure almost shattered when he bent down and
picked her up to carry her to the bed.